Technology and Science16 September, 20262 min read
Vishal Sikka’s Hang Ten Systems Raises $53 Million, Bringing Seed Total to $85 Million
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Hang Ten raises $53M seed led by Temasek-backed Xora; total seed now $85M. Founded by former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka, rounds closed four months apart.
5 outlets told this the same way.
Hang Ten raises $53M
Former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka’s startup Hang Ten Systems raised $53 million, bringing its seed total to $85 million, according to The Economic Times and TechCrunch. The Economic Times said Hang Ten is building AI software for large enterprises and uses AI agents to automate parts of enterprise software projects, including development, migration, finance and analytics. TechCrunch reported the new round was closed just five weeks after the initial $32 million seed round was closed, taking Hang Ten’s total funding to $85 million.
Hang Ten’s investors and partners include Xora, Aramco Ventures, and Temasek’s early-stage investment platform Xora, and TechCrunch said Mayfield also participated in the $53 million expansion. Sikka told TechCrunch that “The build part itself has basically become close to zero marginal cost, close to zero time,” as the company positions AI as a way to reshape how large companies build and maintain software.
Hobie platform and clients
Hang Ten says it delivers through small teams and works across software development, finance and financial analytics, enterprise migrations, and human resources, with its agent AI platform Hobie described as five layers in Unite.AI’s account. Unite.AI said Hobie includes Shoreline, Shaper, Lens, Reef, and Beacon, and it described Beacon as an auditing and governance layer under which each response traces back to the exact data and model version that supported it. TechCrunch said Hang Ten is working with a mix of existing customers and late-stage prospects spanning 21 major enterprises, and it named customers including Fresenius Kabi, Saudi Aramco, and Siemens Energy.
In the same TechCrunch report, Sikka said within 25 days of the first meeting with one customer, Hang Ten signed a multimillion-dollar contract to build a mission-critical software system. Co-founder and chief design officer Sanjay Rajagopalan told TechCrunch, “We are actually delivering production software,” and added, “It’s not like we are doing some kind of PoC.”
Deployment bottleneck and expansion
Xora managing partner Phil Inagaki said the bottleneck in enterprise AI is deployment, telling Unite.AI that it must be deployed safely, cost-effectively, and quickly. Unite.AI reported that Xora said Hang Ten’s model is delivering value faster with smaller teams, with early results already in production, and that Xora sees the same urgency in Singapore and across the region. Unite.AI also quoted Aramco Ventures CEO Mahdi Aladel saying teams across Aramco are eager to collaborate with Hang Ten and that projects are already being defined.
TechCrunch said Hang Ten plans to expand its engineering, consulting, and sales teams, and it reported the Palo Alto-headquartered startup currently has about 20 to 25 employees across the U.S., the Middle East, and Australia. Sikka told TechCrunch that “Enterprises still need trusted partners who are independent of the underlying platform and who work with and solely in the interest of the enterprise,” as Hang Ten positions itself against AI model developers like OpenAI and Anthropic and against traditional systems integrators.